News

Less than a month into the official roll-out of the European Union Pact on Migration and Asylum, ICMPD commits to support the implementation of one of the foremost reforms in European migration and asylum policy. Following its work with Member States in developing their National Implementation Plans (NIP), ICMPD has been working to align national systems and procedures with the requirements of the EU Pact on asylum procedures, border security, screening, Solidarity responsibility mechanisms, and protecting vulnerable persons. 

The European Union Ambassador to Uzbekistan and the Austrian Federal Minister for European and International Affairs and the Federal Minister of the Interior visited the Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) in Tashkent on 7 May 2026. EU Ambassador Toivo Klaar, Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, were joined by ICMPD Deputy Director General Sedef Dearing; along with MRC counsellors and project coordinators, and Austrian media.

Exercise at the Romanian external border prepares Member States for migrant arrivals exceeding reception and processing capacities in asylum centres

Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, and ICMPD Director General Susanne Raab launched the European Legal Gateway Office in India on 18 February 2026.

In 2025, EU Member States recorded a 26% decrease in irregular arrivals and a 21% decrease in asylum applications. It is the first marked decline in these figures in many years, and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development’s (ICMPD) Migration Outlook report, released today, says that this should provide momentum to the EU’s Asylum and Migration Pact implementation.

Susanne Raab joins the International Centre for Migration Policy Development as Director General, effective 1 January 2026.

ICMPD co-hosted the International Border Management Conference with the Ministry of Asylum and Migration of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 18-19 November 2025. The event addressed border management challenges including digitalisation, border security, capacity building for operational staff, and transnational crime while advancing effective, human rights-based solutions.

10 years of the VMC; 10 years since Europe’s migration crisis — ICMPD is hosting the 10th Vienna Migration Conference (VMC) on 21-22 October 2025. EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner and Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica will deliver virtual keynote messages before several senior government figures take to the stage, including Jordan’s Minister of Interior Mazin Abdellah Hilal Al Farrayeh and Sweden’s Minister for Migration Johan Forsell.

Marking World Refugee Day and ten years since the so-called 2015 refugee crisis, ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger reflected on Europe’s migration journey — a decade marked by real progress towards refugee integration, yet strained by the continued inflow and growing political tensions.

Former Austrian Minister for Women, Family, Integration and Media will take office at ICMPD as of 1 January 2026

The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) has released its annual forecast of the 10 migration issues that can shape international migration in 2025. For the first time in years, irregular migration and asylum figures in Europe have decoupled from global trends on displacement. Much suggests that this trend is the result of more restrictive migration policies globally, but it is still too early to speak of a sustainable development. The downward trend, however, will reinforce political debates in Europe that primarily focus on control, externalisation and return. 

The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) hosts its annual Vienna Migration Conference (VMC) on 22-23 October 2024. This year’s discussions take place during a pivotal election year and will feature diverse topics that are set to shape the European migration agenda. These include strategies for safer routes, handling irregular arrivals, and labour migration. The public sentiment on migration in light of socio-economic and geopolitical volatility, and ways forward to implement the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, will also be prominently discussed.

Vienna, 31 July 2024 — ICMPD is growing with another member: Ireland is the 21st Member State to join ICMPD’s work in finding innovative solutions to regional migration challenges. Ireland’s accession is the latest after Germany (2020), Greece (2021), and the Netherlands (2023) joined ICMPD in recent years.

VIENNA, 6 June 2024 – The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) opens new Migrant Resource Centres (MRCs) in Iraq and Pakistan. The MRCs promote safe and regular migration processes for prospective migrants, fight trafficking and people-smuggling through raising awareness, provide pre-departure counselling for emigrants, post-arrival briefings to migrant workers and offer re-integration support for the returnees.

In a year full of European, national, and regional elections, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) expects migration to be a pivotal topic. While many governments implement quick fixes ahead of their electoral cycles, opposition parties are tying their campaigns to migration-related promises. ICMPD’s 2024 Migration Outlook report forecasts record displacement levels resulting from war and conflict, leading to a further securitization of migration and offshoring of asylum procedures, as well as a rise in secondary movements. These developments are taking place while labour migration is ‘coming of age’ in Europe.